Social art platform BBuzzArt lands 2 billion won in Series A investment

Social art platform BBuzzArt has landed itself a Series A investment of 2 billion won (USD $1.68 million) from Posco Capital and Mirae Asset Venture Investment. The company, which is a member of the government established startup hub Born2Global, announced yesterday that it had received the round late last month.

BBuzzArt is an art-sharing platform which aims to connect young and emerging artists, as well as art lovers and curators. Users are encouraged to give feedback on others’ artwork and to vote for pieces that they like. The site currently has over 100,000 users from all over the globe, and hosts some 30,000 pieces of art.

You may recognize the name of the company, as it was one of five startups that went to Germany in 2015 for a three month acceleration program after coming fourth in the Betapitch Seoul competition. BBuzzArt also attended Finland’s Slush conference at the end of last year with the support of Born2Global.

CEO Clara Shin says that BBuzzArt will use the investment to upgrade its current platform, which recommends artwork based on user tastes, in addition to expanding its platform further. “We’re planning to provide an ecommerce platform where artists can sell their work directly.” said Shin.

The company is now offering the chance for its artists to showcase their artwork offline, and has begun a global traveling exhibition called ‘BBuzzShow’ which passes through major cities around the world, including New York, Berlin, Singapore, Shanghai and Seoul.